Mid-Day Motivator: Together

Happy Friday!

~ Hath

Scottrade Center Food Drive

From the Bon Jovi website:

BON JOVI ENCOURAGES FANS ATTENDING SUNDAY’S SCOTTRADE CENTER SHOW TO SUPPORT LOCAL TORNADO AND FLOOD VICTIMS THROUGH FOOD DRIVE

ST. LOUIS, MO (May 20, 2011) – At this Sunday’s sold-out Bon Jovi show, Scottrade Center is teaming up with United Way and the St. Louis Area Foodbank to host a food drive benefitting victims of the area’s recent tornadoes and flooding.

Volunteers will be on hand at each entrance collecting non-perishable food items beginning at 6:00pm through the start of the show. Doors will open at 6:30pm. Any ticketholder that makes a donation will be entered into an on-site drawing to receive a lucky ticket upgrade or special Bon Jovi merchandise pack. Winners will be announced at 7:30pm inside the arena so fans should be sure to arrive early and take their seats.

Make the fandom proud, Missouri Concertgoers :)  What a great idea and very noble cause.

~ Hath

BJCT Post: Memphis

Bon Jovi was in Tennessee last night!

Check out the BJCT for reviews, the setlist, photos, and videos/audio (as we find it).

Do you have anything you want to share? Drop a line to the BJCT Blog Team

~ Hath

Mid-Day Motivator: WTF?

Like we said yesterday -- two is better...

Gotta love PhotoShop :)

~ Hath

Still Rocking

Forbes also has an article about JonBon today:

The next time you play Rock Band don't invite Jon Bon Jovi. The 49- year-old singer's wife and kids recently convinced him to give the popular videogame a try. So he picked up the microphone and launched into a rendition of his classic "Wanted Dead or Alive," backed by family on virtual guitars and drums. He never made it through the song.

"I failed--it buzzed me down," Bon Jovi admits over lunch in Manhattan. "So I stood up off the couch and I said, 'All right, goddamn it, press play.' They did it again, I failed again, and I said, 'Everybody's going to bed. That's the end of this. Turn that shit off.'"

Fortunately for Bon Jovi, audiences in real arenas around the world are kinder. His eponymous band took home $125 million over the past 12 months by FORBES' estimates, more than any other music act besides U2--and more than relative whippersnappers Justin Bieber, Katy Perry and Kanye West combined. In the past year the band has played 74 gigs in 15 nations, grossing $203 million in ticket sales and $20 million in merchandise; Bon Jovi ranks No. 8 on this year's Celebrity 100.

You can read the whole thing here.

I love the Rock Band story. It's one of my favorites. Even my 10-year old doesn't fail out of Wanted :) I know, I know, there's a big difference between playing the game and doing it for real. Just like (according to my brother at least) playing the songs on a real guitar is way easier than playing Rock Band on Expert level.

I'll stick to drums.

~ Hath

Mid-Day Motivator: Two Takamines

All sorts of pretty in this picture.  With these two guys, two of ANYTHING is probably better than one...

~ Hath

Toyota Center Review

From Houston Press Blogs:

Bon Jovi's appeal has always rested on their ability to match power chord to cliché. Look at some of those song titles: "The More Things Change?" "Have a Nice Day?" "Keep the Faith?" You wonder sometimes if JBJ eats a lot of fortune cookies.

But what can't be denied is the man's ability to work a crowd. There is a dearth of rock and roll showmen here in the new millennium, but even at 49 years of age, the formerly leonine lead singer pranced, cajoled, and posed his way into the audience's heart at Toyota Center last night.

Put another way, he saw 20,000 faces, and he rocked them all.

For "Runaway," JBJ said he was taking us back is his time machine to the Summit ("I was there once!"), and we must admit, for those three minutes he could have led 20,000 people burning and looting their way through downtown Houston. Pray he never uses his powers for evil.

You can read the whole review here.

~ Hath

Wanted Wednesday: May 18, 1993

Please rise for the playing of our national anthem.

You guys know the words to this one?

I always love it when Jon asks that. It makes me chuckle. I also have to wonder; is there one guy out there, drunk off his nut, just being an ass, yelling, "NO, SORRY, DON'T KNOW THAT ONE" as his girlfriend elbows him hard in the ribs, making him go "OOF!" and bend over forward, spilling his beer on the BIG guy in front of him and therefore earning himself a black eye... 

Sorry, my brain goes on strange little mini-trips sometimes. But I wonder...

Ahem.

On this date, in 1993, our boys were in the UK. Sheffield arena.

So the audience sings the first verse, then Jon comes in with the rest.

Standard solo, in that it's not too long or nothing "super special" but hey, it's Wanted. It's always good.

Let's Ride!






Or, you can download it from my Mediafire.

~ Hath

BJCT Post: Houston

Bon Jovi was in Texas last night!

Check out the BJCT for reviews, the setlist, photos, and videos/audio (as we find it).

Do you have anything you want to share? Drop a line to the BJCT Blog Team

~ Hath

Mid-Day Motivator: Stripping

Bay, the caption on this one cracked me up :)

~ Hath

Houston Stop on the Listening Tour

From the FOX affiliate in Houston:




HOUSTON - Rock superstar Jon Bon Jovi spent the day finding out what Houston's young people hope for their future.

He visited 'SEARCH' which helps homeless youth with a place to stay...

Bon Jovi is part of the President Barack Obama’s Council for Community Solutions.

He's taking part in a "listening tour" in major cities to find out what kids are concerned about.

"The one underlying premise that keeps coming back is information,” Bon Jovi said. They need to know how and who to get help from and then they embrace it.”

Bon Jovi will take the information he's gathered from kids and report back to the White House.

He'll play at Houston’s Toyota Center Tuesday night.


~ Hath

Mid-Day Motivator: Rock Star

Catte, that sounds like a challenge.

So, gimme 1000 words on this photo I can post :)

~ Hath

Youth Listening Sessions Come to Atlanta

accessAtlanta has a nice article about JBJ's visit to Atlanta, where he (and others from the White House Council for Community Solutions) met with young adults from Atlanta-based Chris Kids and Visions Youth Leadership Academy, as well as civic leaders including Atlanta City Council member Michael Julian Bond.

Along with fellow council member Michael Kempner, CEO of the New Jersey-based public affairs and public relations firm MWW Group, Bon Jovi, a longtime philanthropist and creator of the Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation, has embarked on a series of listening sessions with youths from community-based organizations.

“We get to amplify their voices,” said Kempner.

Now with two listening sessions behind them, Kempner and Bon Jovi, who happily posed for photos with the group after the meeting, are hearing some similar requests.

“It’s all about trust. In both cities, we’ve heard they want a role model to believe in them, and there’s a real need for life skills,” Kempner said.

“They love the idea of being mentored,” Bon Jovi added, “and want to remind you that behind the facade, they’re kids. These kids are determined to buck the system and that is just exemplary.”

You can read the whole article here.

~ Hath

BJCT Post: Orlando

Bon Jovi was in Florida last night!

Check out the BJCT for reviews, the setlist, photos, and videos/audio (as we find it).

Do you have anything you want to share? Drop a line to the BJCT Blog Team

~ Hath

Columbus Boot - Individual Files

A few of you have asked for the individual files from the Ohio show.  They're up on my  mediafire here.

For hints on converting FLAC to something your iPod will like, you can check out this post.

~ Hath

Columbus Bootleg

Thanks for the drop, Catte; I hadn't been over to HOB for more than a week now :)

Fresh from House of Bootlegs

May 10th, 2011
Nationwide Arena - Columbus, OH.

Audience Recording

Disc One: (67:34)

01. Lost Highway 6:17
02. You Give Love A Bad Name 3:47
03. Born To Be My Baby 5:12
04. We Weren't Born To Follow 5:07
05. Runaway 5:22
06. It's My Life 6:17
07. Work For The Working Man 4:31
08. We Got It Going On 4:54
9. Bad Medicine / Roadhouse Blues / Old Time Rock 'n' Roll 13:57
10. Lay Your Hands On Me 7:26
11. (You Want To) Make A Memory 4:44

Disc Two: (69:07)

01. Bed Of Roses 9:08
02. I'll Be There For You 8:05
03. Who Says You Can't Go Home 6:28
04. I'll Sleep When I'm Dead 5:39
05. Blood On Blood 6:00
06. Have A Nice Day 4:07
07. Keep The Faith 7:08
08. ~ Encore ~ 2:03
09. When We Were Beautiful 7:00
10. Wanted Dead Or Alive 5:58
11. Livin' On A Prayer 7:31

Download Here:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=V3RIBPOD


~ Hath

Working with Bootleg Files

Hey everyone!

I've gotten a bunch of questions about bootleg "rar" files, so I'm going to make one post about what I do with them (lol) then hopefully remember to link to the post when I come across boots to share.  Keep in mind that these are steps that work for me.  There may be better/easier ways to do it, but this has served me well over the last few years.

[1] RAR files are compressed archive files (like ZIP files). If there are multiple "rar" files for a bootleg, you almost always have to download them ALL to be able to unzip them.

[2] You can open/extract from RAR files with a number of programs; some of my favorites are winRAR, winZIP, and 7ZIP (free). There are other tools, but these are the ones I use on my PC.

[3] The contents of the RAR files will (obviously) differ depending on what you're downloading.

FOR DVDs:

For video bootlegs, the RAR file is most likely containing the DVD directory (VIDEO_TS) with a bunch of files under it -- with extensions like ISO and BUF. To get this to something usable, you need software for burning a DVD. I use the utility that comes with DVDVideoSoft's bundle (free), but you can use Nero, Roxio, or a host of other tools.

Most burning tools require both VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS directories. If there is no AUDIO_TS directory, you can create one. It doesn't matter if it's empty (apparently), it just has to be there.

Example:

You have a bootleg "rar" file called JoviVideoBoot.rar

Create a directory on your computer called "Jovi Video Boot"
Open the JoviVideoBoot.rar file using one of the tools above, or a tool of your own choosing
Extract the "VIDEO_TS" directory to the "Jovi Video Boot" directory you created
Create a new directory under "Jovi Video Boot" called "AUDIO_TS"
Using the DVD Burner that comes with DVDVideoSoft (or a tool of your own choosing), create a DVD with source as the "Jovi Video Boot" directory.

FOR AUDIO:

Many audio bootlegs come in FLAC format, which is a high-quality audio format. Unfortunately, while it plays spectacularly well on the computer, not so much on your iPod. (I don't know if any other personal music playing devices support FLAC, but iTunes/iPod does not.)

Open the RAR file using one one of the tools listed above (or any of your choosing).  This will let you at the individual FLAC files inside.

In order to play in iTunes, you need to convert the FLAC files to something else. There are websites you can use to do the conversion, but there are a couple ways you can do it in batch on your PC.

You can download this free utility set from DVDVideoSoft, which contains an audio converter that lets you bulk-convert a bunch of files at once, right on your hard drive. You can also use WinAMP (one of my favorite media players on my PC) to do the conversion.  This tutorial is pretty good on that.

Now you'll have MP3 (or WAV, or whatever) that can play on your iPod.

Good Luck!

~ Hath

BJCT Post: Atlanta

Bon Jovi was in Georgia last night!

Check out the BJCT for reviews, the setlist, photos, and videos/audio (as we find it).

Do you have anything you want to share? Drop a line to the BJCT Blog Team

~ Hath